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Several earthquakes have struck near the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the past 24 hours. Photo: USGS
A series of earthquakes has hit Puerto Rico and the ocean waters around the US Virgin Islands today; However, due to the intensity and motion associated with each earthquake, there is no risk of a tsunami at this time for the Caribbean, the Bahamas, or the East Coast of the United States.
Most of today’s earthquakes strike along the southern coast of Puerto Rico where a strong earthquake struck in 2020. It is likely that these earthquakes are continuing aftershocks of that strong earthquake that hit the island in January 2020. This 6.4 caused severe damage in Puerto Rico, including spreading Force across most of the island. A swarm of earthquakes started here in December 2019 and the unrest has continued ever since.
These earthquakes occur near the northern edge of the Caribbean Plate, which is a predominantly oceanic tectonic plate that lies under Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of South America. The Caribbean Plate borders the North American Plate, the South American Plate, the Nazca Plate, and the Cocos Plate. These plate boundaries are home to ongoing seismic activity, including frequent earthquakes, occasional tsunamis, and sometimes volcanic eruptions.
The strongest earthquake in the last 24 hours was a 4.4 that struck 100 miles northeast of Cruz Bay in the US Virgin Islands. This earthquake, which occurred at 8:09 a.m. ET, had a depth of about 28 miles.
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